In 2003, Dean Baquet, then managing editor of the Los Angeles Times, along with then-Editor John S. Carroll, considered—and ultimately rejected—delaying publication of a damaging story on gubernatorial candidate Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Just five days before the October 7 special election, the paper ran the story, which detailed multiple allegations of sexual harassment. The timing did not give the Schwarzenegger camp much chance to respond and regroup.
“Sometimes,” Baquet told a reporter doing a post-mortem on the case, “people don’t understand that to not publish is a big decision for a newspaper, and almost a political act. That’s not an act of journalism.” Continue…
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